Man killed in fall at sawmill

Dave McConnell, a 65-year-old Saratoga man, was killed as the result of a fall from a logging deck at the Saratoga Forest Management mill last Thursday.

The call for emergency management services to respond to the accident was made at 3:31 p.m. according to Saratoga Police Chief Tom Knickerbocker.

The Wyoming State Plan Office of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) confirmed the death on Friday and said they had an investigator on site. According to OSHA, McConnell fell 17 feet from the deck. No cause of death or determination of what led to the accident have been announced yet.

Gary Ervin, Managing Partner at the mill, stated that McConnell was a very experienced, safety conscious employee. Ervin and McConnell had also become friends, enjoying raft trips and dinners together. “As I told his wife, I will miss Dave for being the genuinely good person that he is,” Ervin said, adding, “(Dave) was just a great person and it’s a big loss to community, family and friends.”